Surprise! iOS still beating Android in enterprise penetration

Okay, it's not that big of a surprise, but Good Technology's latest data from their enterprise customers confirm that yes, iOS is killing Android in the business world. In the first quarter of the year, the iPhone 4S accounted for 37% of Good's activations, followed by the iPad 2 with 17.7%, while the new iPad is already claiming 12.1%. The iPhone 4, original iPad, and iPhone 3GS occupy other top spots before Android devices start making the list. By comparison, they scored only 26.1% smartphone penetration and 2.7% tablet presentation. These stats continue the trend initially identified by Good in January.

Part of the reason for the Apple's success relative to Android is the uniformity of the devices. Like BlackBerry, iPhones and iPads come from one end-to-end vendor and so, while they have their own benefits and drawbacks, those benefits and drawbacks are a constant. Once you know how iOS works on ActiveSync or Good, you know how all the iPhones and iPads deployed in your enterprise will work on ActiveSync or Good. It makes everything from rollout to support easier.

With Android, Google has left a lot of the implementation details up to the individual manufacturers and carriers, and so ActiveSync and app compatibility can vary from line to line or even device to device. Having that many more targets drastically increases complexity for both deployment and support.

Apple has also been making it a point to focus on enterprise-friendly features and to tout business adoption figures in their conference calls. Obviously, it's paying off.

Has your boss issued you an iPhone? How many corporate Android handsets have you seen around the office?

Reader comments

Surprise! iOS still beating Android in enterprise penetration

This shouldn't be a surprise, just as BlackBerry dominating the enterprise for so long wasn't. It's easier to administer and support a single device.
But in my company we no longer get company-issued phones, we get a stipend to get whatever we want and access to Good, which seems to be the direction a lot of companies are starting to go. We have about a 50/50 mix of Android to iPhone. The only people continuing to use the old company-issue Blackberries are those either too cheap or too lazy to upgrade. Absolutely nobody went out and got a new Blackberry in my department of about 150 employees.

The real shocker is that Microsoft has zero presence according to Good's report. Almost two decades ago, Apple tried and failed to beat Microsoft in the enterprise desktop computing market. Now, they're crushing Microsoft in the enterprise mobile computing market.
It looks like this all happened overnight, but it actually took 15+ years of relentless development, testing, iteration, and improvement. Apple couldn't force anybody to use their products. They had no exclusive deal leverage over PC OEMs and no corporate IT contract lock-in. They had to attract customers by working hard and providing the best hardware + software + ecosystem. And now all that work is paying off. Good luck to any competitor trying to replicate that.

Don't read too far into that, Good for Enterprise was only made available on Windows Phone 10 days ago. Microsoft has a strong business plan with Windows 8, I would expect things to look a lot different 3 years from now. Apple will likely have the same downfall as in the past. In business, cost matters, and you can't control costs very well when you are locked into their proprietary world.

Nope I still have to have a crappy blackberry!! All these years I thought it was because of the security measures that RIM had and they sold phones without cameras until last week when I received my new work phone and it has a camera! And Bluetooth and wifi. That's crap. Why couldn't I just have another iPhone over this stupid BB Torch?!

Android outsell because of Android got many cheap handset. Because there are many POOR people like you out there buy Android. Oh ya... Android just an OS... If you count OS then iOS is outsell Android with iPod Touch, iPad and iPhone. LOL... Check the market before post... shame on you.

People also choose Android because it offers better personalization and more hardware choices.
With Android, if you want a 4.5" screen, you can get that. If you want 3D, you can get that. If you want to install apps from Amazon or other markets, you can do that without voiding your warranty. People tend to like choices. This is not news, Apple has been through this cycle before.
The whole "people who buy Android can't afford an iPhone" argument is nonsense spouted by ignorant fanboys. The top selling Android phones are the expensive ones. Notice every one of the Android phones in the chart above were at least as expensive as the iPhone.

Who cares about market share? Apple still sells millions of iPhones, they're growing their MTM from the year's before anyways, their profit margins are astronomical,Their churn from people switching to Android/WP7 is still low, and consumer reports show that the people who own iOS devices are the happiest. Congrats Android, you have more units sold, but still less money cause it's split in 28 different directions with all the companies involved. Its not how much you sold, its how much money you make from selling, and apple can still sell less but make way more than any Android OEM.

Your justification sounds familiar...oh yeah RIM was saying essentially the same thing about a year ago when they slipped from #1.
Apple's greatest strentgh and greatest weakness is their insistence on being proprietary. It means they will never stay #1 at anything they do indefinately.